


Branded

by boonies



Category: Dong Bang Shin Ki
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-09
Updated: 2012-11-09
Packaged: 2017-11-18 06:39:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/557999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boonies/pseuds/boonies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Changmin gets jealous of the stupidest things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Branded

 *

 

"He's talking about it again."

 

Yunho squints at Changmin, barely conscious, then buries his head under his pillow.

 

Changmin grabs the covers, the pillows, the sheets, practically the fucking _mattress_ , and pulls them off of Yunho. "He's. Talking. About. The. Tattoos. Again."

 

Desperately, Yunho grabs for whatever warm thing is still around. "Who?"

 

Changmin's standing there, holding all the warm things. "Hyung."

 

"WHICH ONE?"

 

"JAEJOONG."

 

Yunho groans into his rapidly cooling mattress. "Who cares?"

 

Huffing, Changmin's tosses all of Yunho's bedding to the floor. "I care. _You_ should care."

 

Yunho sits up, regretting not wearing anything except a t-shirt to bed. "I'm not the one that stalks Junsu's twitter or reads Jaejoong's interviews or watches Yoochun's dramas."

 

Changmin's cheeks are burning.

 

Yunho puts his hands up preemptively. "Only because I don't have time."

 

Changmin is glaring at him with the intensity of a thousand homicidal suns.

 

"Not saying _you_ have time," Yunho backpedals quickly, fingers spreading in an attempt to solicit peace. "You're just more... ah... dedicated?"

 

"You mean I hold grudges."

 

_Like you're in a fucking Japanese horror movie_ , Yunho almost says, but he's pretty naked and pretty cold and Changmin's pretty oblivious, so he stretches his shirt as far down as he can and says, "Just ignore it, Changmin-ah."

 

Changmin's chewing on his bottom lip, scowling at the linens at his feet.

 

"Let's get tattoos," he says suddenly.

 

Yunho groans.

 

"No."

 

*

 

 

"SHINee have tattoos."

 

Yunho pushes past Changmin into the bathroom. He should lock the door, but. "What?"

 

Changmin follows after him, closing the door behind them. "SHINee have, like, a billion tattoos."

 

"SHINee also dry-hump each other on stage," Yunho points out, trying to figure out how to jump into the shower without exposing himself to Changmin. "You wanna start doing that, too?"

 

Changmin makes a face.

 

*

 

"There's lasers," Changmin says over breakfast. "If you get married and your wife wants you to get rid of the tattoo or something."

 

"If?" Yunho frowns, losing his appetite.

 

Changmin ignores him. "Something small. I'm not saying get a tramp-stamp like Jaejoong or your mother's portrait on your back—"

 

Yunho glances at his porridge. Is that... a thing. Did that happen? Was it Yoochun? It sounds like a Yoochun thing.

 

Yunho's gonna have to consult the internet later. Preferably without getting traumatized.

 

"Just a small one," Changmin says, in a weird voice. "Just TVXQ."

 

*

 

"Or maybe just my name," Changmin says, buckling himself into their car.

 

Yunho turns the ignition, startled. "What?"

 

"It can be in katakana or hanja or English or—"

 

"IT'S NOT HAPPENING."

 

*

 

Changmin drops him during practice.

 

"Just get it somewhere no one can ever see," Changmin sighs, extending a hand to help him up.

 

Yunho eyes it suspiciously.

 

*

 

"Just let me sleep," Yunho groans, faceplanting into the couch.

 

Unrelenting, Changmin sits down on Yunho's ass. "I found a discreet shop, no questions asked, no media coverage, no mess."

 

Yunho exhales into a cushion.

 

He contemplates for a moment, fatigue edging out reason. "Okay."

 

Changmin freezes.

 

Slowly, he slides off Yunho and onto the floor and brings his face close. "Yeah? You won't change your mind in the morning?"

 

"At this point," Yunho mutters, "you'd probably just tattoo me in my sleep, so."

 

Changmin's grin is so bright Yunho can't regret this.

 

*

 

Yunho's regretting this.

 

"It doesn't hurt," Changmin says but sounds not at all convincing.

 

"Why don't you go first, then," Yunho suggests, wrapping his fingers around Changmin's arms and pushing him forward.

 

Changmin's sneakers skid against the tiles. "Age before beauty."

 

Yunho keeps pushing. "You're the one that wants this."

 

"I don't want it," Changmin groans, then catches himself.

 

Yunho lets him go.

 

He stares at the back of Changmin's head for a long moment, then starts warily, "Min-ah."

 

Changmin doesn't turn around.

 

"If this is some sort of soulfighter thing..." Yunho tries again, schooling his features and choosing his words super carefully. "You have nothing to prove."

 

Changmin turns around, backlit by the tattoo shop's bright neon signs. "It's just..."

 

Yunho waits.

 

He's pretty good at that.

 

Frustrated, Changmin drags a hand down his face, hair flopping into his eyes. "They tattooed each other's names, hyung. Above their hearts."

 

It only hurts a little, which is weird, so Yunho puts a brotherly hand on Changmin's shoulder. "So?"

 

With an incredulous blink, Changmin fixes his eyes on Yunho's. "So? SO?"

 

Yunho quickly removes his hand.

 

Visibly upset, Changmin takes a deep breath, gaze dropping. "Jaejoong's interview said he'll never tattoo anyone else's name on his body. Not even if he gets married."

 

Yunho almost says _so?_ again, but this is starting to sting in an unfamiliar way.

 

Changmin drags his eyes back to Yunho's face.

 

"They're forever," he says. "And they're implying _we're_ not."

 

Yunho's heart shatters.

 

He feels the pieces rearrange themselves around Changmin's words, around Changmin's hurt, around _Changmin_ , and so he gives himself a determined little nod and marches straight up to a crabby tattoo artist.

 

*

 

"Why can't I see it?"

 

Yunho winces, hobbling over to the fridge. "Why can't I see yours?"

 

Changmin hesitates. "At least tell me where you got it."

 

Yunho can play this game, too. "Sure. As soon as you tell me where you got y—"

 

Jittery, Changmin shifts his weight from one leg to the other. "Just. You know. Somewhere no one can see."

 

" _No one_?" Yunho asks before he can think it through, then puts up a hand. "Forget I asked."

 

"No," Changmin says softly. Faltering, his fingers skirt around his sweater and then he's pulling it up and Yunho doesn't really know where to look.

 

So he stares indiscriminately.

 

"If you laugh," Changmin threatens, eyes narrowed.

 

Yunho's so far from laughing he's on the opposite side of the spectrum, almost in pain.

 

Seriously, tattoos never did anything for him before, so why is he being stupid right now. It's just a bit of ink on a taut stretch of flesh. No big deal.

 

Changmin rolls up his sweater far enough to expose his pecs. On the left side, Yunho's name is a dark puckered mark, neat like an advertising print, pink around the edges and written in English, and it pulls on everything in Yunho.

 

It pulls so hard he takes a step forward, two, three, until his fingers are hovering just a breadth away.

 

"You said to get them where no one can see," Yunho grumbles. "One costume change and everyone will see this."

 

Changmin shrugs, a little too casually. "Show me yours."

 

Yunho's face practically melts off.

 

Shit.

 

"Maybe when it's more... uh, healed," he says hastily, then spins around and throws over his shoulder, "okay, well, see ya."

 

Changmin catches up to him in, like, two steps.

 

"Should I try to find it on my own?" he asks quietly and all of a sudden, Yunho has no fucking idea what's going on.

 

What's been going on for the better part of a decade.

 

And then the next thing he knows, he's just sort of... sliding his fingers down to his sweatpants and tugging. He lowers the waistband just enough for the tattoo to peek through.

 

Changmin's watching his every move, eyes dark.

 

"Well," he says finally, lips thinning into an angry line. "Yeah. No one's gonna be able to see yours."

 

"Except you," Yunho says and wants to die. "I don't mean... just... you're seeing it right now, I mean. Not ever again."

 

Changmin's fingers press into Yunho's hipbone, thumb caressing down. The tattoo's angled low. Too low. Too close. Too inappropriate.

 

"It's just my name," Changmin whispers.

 

Yunho panics. "Yours is just _my_ name."

 

Changmin doesn't even flinch. Just keeps staring. "I meant to add TVXQ," he says, clearly paying only a little bit of attention, "but it hurt and I wanted to get out of there."

 

Sure. Yeah. That's what... Yunho's gonna use as an excuse, too.

 

"Great," Yunho says, mostly regaining his composure. "Now that we're both disfigured for life, I'm just gonna—"

 

Changmin presses him into the wall, one large hand palming his hip. The other one's digging through a pocket, apparently searching for a phone.

 

Yunho can't really concentrate on account of Changmin's fingers lingering and Changmin's hair brushing his cheek and Changmin's body pressing closer, but he manages to ask, short on breath and sanity, "What are you doing?"

 

Changmin grins like a wicked thing.

 

"I'm gonna send a pic to Jaejoong."


End file.
